glenn-aylett I watched the Belles of St Trinians for the first time in 25 years on a digital channel yesterday and for all it is dated now( well it was made 58 years ago), the film is still hilarious. Alistair Sim is brilliant as the corrupt, betting obsessed headmistress and a very young George Cole is excellent as the spiv Flash Harry. Also considering British schools were generally very strict places in the fifties, people growing up in this era must have wanted to be in a school where rules didn't exist and where the girls betted on horses and made illegal booze and goaded the teachers. A comedy gem which has plenty of hilarious moments( the hockey match, the old girls visit and the parents day) and which is made better by such a talented cast. Other St Trinians films are still watchable, although Wildcats was a not very good attempt to update the franchise for the eighties, but Belles is by far the best.

ptb-8 About as hilarious as 50s British comedy can get, THE BELLES OF ST TRINIAN'S has almost a gag a minute... and at 91 minutes makes for a terrific time. Other films I equally recommend of the same period are THE TITFIELD THUNDERBOLT and THE GREEN MAN. In fact any film with Alistair Sim or Terry Thomas, George Cole, Richard Wattis or Joyce Grenfell or any combination is a delight. in ST TRINIAN'S we get a double dose of Sims playing two roles with that hilarious disdain he constantly lets ripple across his face. Joyce Grenfell as Ruby Gates (oh dear! that name!) plays her 'jolly hockey sticks' constable-incognito to hilarious perfection. Possibly the best laughs come from George Cole as Flash Harry (who comes out of a bush when whistled at) and various visits to classrooms by Ms Fritton (Sims) reacting to explosions ('Oh poor Betty!") or science lab gin production ("just send a few bottles of that up to my room"'). Every part of the film is funny from the characters, their costumes the antics and the setting. There were sequels but the first three are the best: including this one, BLUE MURDER AT ST TRINIAN'S and later in color THE GREAT ST TRINIAN'S TRAIN ROBBERY.

tedg The gag is simple. Start with a private, exclusive girl's school, something the Brits inexplicably call a "public" school. Then transform it into something criminally mischievous. At once you get the two mainstays of British humor: reversals in class and sexual tweaks.Since nearly all movies of this type are gag movies, the story is disposable, only allowing the situation to be displayed. Its a bit delicate though.In this first of the series, the class token is chosen as someone safe, an oil sheik. And the sex bit is far, far more subdued than in later episodes. The only one I have seen, "Blue Murder," the next, suggests the older girls are running a brothel. There, you have solid knicker jokes. Here you only have a soccer game inserted so you can see their figures.Since these girls are depicted as undefeatable, the situation ends up pitting the fourth grade against the sixth, since they back different horses in a race.One wonders whether this was done the Ealing way, by consulting a chart of comic situations, or the ordinary way by intuitive brainstorming.Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

sol- Alastair Sim in a double role lights up this production that otherwise I did not find too much fun to watch. There are a few amusing moments during the film, but I generally found it to be rather overdone and too absurd to be funny. Many of these old British comedies still have charm and the power to make me laugh, but I would not place this film in that category. The characters actually felt rather stale, and I found it all rather annoying. I do realise that I'm in the minority here, so maybe it's just me. I suppose if one is into zaniness this might be good to watch, and Alastair Sim fans should see it for him playing two roles rather well, but otherwise I just personally cannot recommended it.